Exclusion of Time Must Be Decided First: Supreme Court Modifies Rajasthan HC Remand in Jaipur Metro Arbitration Case

An arbitral award was passed by a 2:1 majority on 20.12.2017 (para 8). Continental Engineering challenged it before the Rajasthan State Commercial Court, Jaipur, in March 2018; in November 2018 that court returned the application under Order VII Rule 10 CPC, finding that, the arbitration being an international commercial arbitration, the High Court was the proper forum (paras 8-10). Continental then filed before the Rajasthan High Court at Jaipur, and in 2022 added an application under Section 14 of the Limitation Act with its written submissions (paras 11-13). A Single Judge dismissed the challenge on 02.03.2022; the Division Bench reversed that on 21.08.2025 (paras 3, 14, 17).

The Single Judge had held that no Section 34 application was properly presented before the High Court under the Rajasthan Arbitration Rules, 2003, and that in any event it was time-barred, as no application for condonation of delay was filed (paras 14-16). The Division Bench found the Section 34 application rightly filed but went further, applying Section 14 itself to exclude the time spent before the wrong forum and remitting the matter for a hearing on merits (paras 4, 17). Jaipur Metro's limited grievance was that the exclusion of time should have been left to the Single Judge, after notice to it; Continental's position was that the only question was excluding time spent bona fide before a court without jurisdiction (paras 4-6, 18). The Supreme Court held that these were matters for the Single Judge to decide first: only if time is excluded and the Section 34 application is found within time would the merits arise (para 7). It therefore kept the remand but directed that the Section 14 application be heard first, after due notice to Jaipur Metro (para 19).